Restaurants in Pacific Place have always known they have a captive audience so there is not a whole lot of incentive to work as hard as they would have to if they were in another location. Since Swire kicked out Dan Ryan's and Grappa, it's only given greater license for the remaining ones to get away with bad food/service.
I had not been to Thai Basil for a long time but went last night since a friend had chosen it before we went to see a movie. The restaurant bills itself as a "Thai/Western" restaurant but the interpretation leaves much to be desired. Most of us who live in Hong Kong have been to Thailand so we know what good Thai food is and we also know what constitutes Thai fusion. What Thai Basil serves is just crap.
I'll address the food later but the evening got off to a bad start since the staff could not find the reservation. Looking at their reservation book it's not hard to see why this is not organized. Reservations are noted by hand in pencil in a notebook. Given that this was a Saturday night and there were only 4 reservations written down indicated something is not working correctly. (Note to management: there are computerized reservation programs available).
We were able to get a table but only after we agreed to the demand of the hostess: "You have to be finished within 90 minutes". How very gracious!
The service was horrible; there seems to be no staff assignments by table or section. We had to continually wave staff down to take a drink order, then the food order, then to get our check.
We ordered two G&Ts and these were served in a most unusual fashion: a large glass with ice, tonic and a straw (no lime) and a rocks glass filled with a minute amount of gin. I guess they felt the need to prove there was going to be gin in the drink; had they served that paltry amount of gin already poured in the tonic water, it would have been impossible to discern its presence.
The food that followed was, in a word, dreadful. We had some paper rolls filled with over-ripe mango and beetroot with some sort of peanut sauce on the side... just a bunch of rolls with mush inside and a mealy peanut slop with it. The rolls were not even rolled and cut properly nor attractively presented.
We followed with lamb in a red curry sauce which was actually three small lamb chops in, theoretically, a curry sauce which didn't taste any curry sauce I've ever had. There was something gray and mushy underneath the lamp....unappetizing-looking to be sure but I took the plunge and concluded it was overcooked aubergine. One taste was enough.
In summary: bad service and bad food. However, the restaurant was pretty full... as mentioned, they have always had a captive audience so have been able to get away with this. I'm hoping that now that there are more restaurants are opening in PP that some of these places will either up their game or leave the business. Give it a miss.
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